Michelle Obama snubs stylish Chinese first lady

Michelle Obama snubs stylish Chinese first lady by staying home in D.C. with Sasha and Malia

Michelle Obama will be a no show when her husband attends the China-U.S. Summit in California this weekend, a slap in the face to the Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan.

The stylish wife of China's premier had hoped to share the spotlight with Michelle Obama but she has opted to stay in D.C. to spend time with her two daughters.

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are heading to the "Camp David of the West" in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for meetings June 7 and 8.

The First Lady's decision to remain at home was expected to "not go down very well" with her Chinese counterpart, one Chinese diplomacy expert said.
"According to normal diplomatic etiquette, this is very strange. It shouldn't be like this," Zhang Ming, a political scientist from China's Renmin University, told the UK's Daily Telegraph.

"First Lady diplomacy is also very important, and the U.S. side has failed to cooperate," he added.

Michelle Obama's office revealed Tuesday that she would not be joining her husband at Sunnylands, the Annenberg estate near Palm Springs that will provide the picturesque setting for the political talks.

She wanted to stay in Washington with their children, Malia, 14, and Sasha, 12, who finish school this week, according to the New York Times.
Barack Obama, 51, is flying to the coast Thursday night, after he makes a stop in Charlotte, N.C.

The President will headline a $32,400-a-plate dinner Thursday night at the Palo Alto home of billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
The swanky shindig is a fundraiser to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Xi, 59, will arrive Friday in California.

His much loved wife, 50, has been dubbed the "Kate Middleton of China" for her glamorous attire and energy in her public appearances.
She is a renowned singer and has taken on a more public role than previous political wives in the Communist nation.

The Chinese president and his wife have a 20-year-old daughter, Xi Mingze, who is a student at Harvard.

Michelle Obama snubs stylish Chinese first lady by staying home in D.C. with Sasha and Malia

Michelle Obama will be a no show when her husband attends the China-U.S. Summit in California this weekend, a slap in the face to the Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan.

The stylish wife of China's premier had hoped to share the spotlight with Michelle Obama but she has opted to stay in D.C. to spend time with her two daughters.

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are heading to the "Camp David of the West" in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for meetings June 7 and 8.

The First Lady's decision to remain at home was expected to "not go down very well" with her Chinese counterpart, one Chinese diplomacy expert said.
"According to normal diplomatic etiquette, this is very strange. It shouldn't be like this," Zhang Ming, a political scientist from China's Renmin University, told the UK's Daily Telegraph.

"First Lady diplomacy is also very important, and the U.S. side has failed to cooperate," he added.

Michelle Obama's office revealed Tuesday that she would not be joining her husband at Sunnylands, the Annenberg estate near Palm Springs that will provide the picturesque setting for the political talks.

She wanted to stay in Washington with their children, Malia, 14, and Sasha, 12, who finish school this week, according to the New York Times.
Barack Obama, 51, is flying to the coast Thursday night, after he makes a stop in Charlotte, N.C.

The President will headline a $32,400-a-plate dinner Thursday night at the Palo Alto home of billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
The swanky shindig is a fundraiser to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Xi, 59, will arrive Friday in California.

His much loved wife, 50, has been dubbed the "Kate Middleton of China" for her glamorous attire and energy in her public appearances.
She is a renowned singer and has taken on a more public role than previous political wives in the Communist nation.

The Chinese president and his wife have a 20-year-old daughter, Xi Mingze, who is a student at Harvard.

You haven't posted anything useful, like the the actual summit, which was quite fruitful and has a lot more bearing on Asia Pacific diplomacy. Yet here we are, discussing Michelle's daughter's school time. *SMH. DFI is a strange place sometimes.

You haven't posted anything useful, like the the actual summit, which was quite fruitful and has a lot more bearing on Asia Pacific diplomacy. Yet here we are, discussing Michelle's daughter's school time. *SMH. DFI is a strange place sometimes.

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Why don't you post on the Meeting of Obama with the Chinese bigwig.

Being a Chinese, you would be able to analyse the issue better.

However, when one's husband is in public life, family life becomes secondary. Nation and Diplomacy takes preeminence.

Any departure is not taken well and is taken to be a negative vibe.

For instance the President of France, Sarkozy was not married and the lady was a 'partner'. She did not accompany Sarkozy to India since live ins/ partners are not in keeping with the social norms with that of India.

She accompanied him elsewhere in Europe where the social norms accepted live ins and partners.

If the Chinese are really desperate with these get-together meetings with the US first lady then they should have cancelled & rescheduled this US-China summit. Problem solved.

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Indeed, Xi could have cancelled the meeting, but he didnt. Instead Xi and his wife agreed to have the meeting, knowing in advance that Michelle would not show up.

It certainly makes a perfect photo show if both first ladies were there. Personally, i was looking forward to that and regret that it didnt happen.

But why should we feel losing face? Michelle had a good reason not to be present, in fact she wrote a private letter to Peng explaining all of this, and expressed that she would like to meet Peng next time. In my opinion, that is polite and delicate, why are people calling that rude?

Even if that was rude as the old man called it which i certainly disagree, Chinese should not be the one lost face, the rude one did.

Indeed, Xi could have cancelled the meeting, but he didnt. Instead Xi and his wife agreed to have the meeting, knowing in advance that Michelle would not show up.

It certainly makes a perfect photo show if both first ladies were there. Personally, i was looking forward to that and regret that it didnt happen.

But why should we feel losing face? Michelle had a good reason not to be present, in fact she wrote a private letter to Peng explaining all of this, and expressed that she would like to meet Peng next time. In my opinion, that is polite and delicate, why are people calling that rude?

Even if that was rude as the old man called it which i certainly disagree, Chinese should not be the one lost face, the rude one did.

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

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If it was decided earlier that they will not meet, then why all this lament and song and dance.

Then where is you cause to regret that it did not happen and looking forward to something that will never happen.

Do you look forward to the Sun rising from the West?

Whether Pong was told ot not is not in the open forum. So, it is your way to see to it that you and China do not lose face.

This has been a rude slap on China's face.

What humbug that Mrs Obama had to celebrate the birthday of her daughter and so she was not there.

Are you suggesting that birthdays are more important than fostering friendly ties with other nations and that too with such a Nation, that at the drop of a hat, loses face and takes everything to be done against it?

On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to California for a two-day summit with President Obama. Xi will bring his wife, Peng Liyuan, but Michelle Obama will remain in Washington with her daughters, who are finishing the school year this week, according to the New York Times.

My colleague Dan Drezner writes that it's a "diplomatic misstep" for Michelle Obama to skip the summit, and the Telegraph reports that "China's hopes that their first lady would dazzle the American public ... have been dashed."

Yes, America's first lady will offend some Chinese by skipping the meeting. But I think Michelle Obama made the right choice. A popular singer, Peng spent her career belting out Chinese propaganda -- songs with messages that Michelle Obama, and indeed many Americans and Chinese, do not want to be associated with. In one video, she pretends to be Tibetan and asks "Who is going to liberate us? The dear People's Liberation Army." (The video angered Tibetan groups for portraying China's 1959 invasion of Tibet as consensual.)

Peng is a civilian but holds a rank equivalent to major general in China's PLA, and she would sing in full military garb before her husband became so high-profile. Perhaps most notoriously, she allegedly sang in support of Chinese troops in Tiananmen Square in 1989, following a bloody crackdown on protesters on June 4 of that year.

When was the last time Michelle Obama -- or indeed any U.S. first lady -- publically met and socialized with a military representative of a non-ally country? It's a smart meeting for Mrs. Obama to skip. Peng's no Asma al-Assad, but she's no Carla Bruni either.

Michelle Obama skips US-China summit. To most Chinese, this will look like a snub

Iâ€™ll say it straight out: Michelle Obama should absolutely be at the US-China Sunnylands summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping.
I realise and appreciate (really, I do â€“ Iâ€™m typing this furiously before rushing off to see my sonâ€™s school play) that the Obamas have always put their daughters first whenever possible.
Itâ€™s Malia and Sashaâ€™s last week at school and, it seems reasonable, that if dad is away on a pow-wow with the Chinese president (which he can perfectly well handle himself) that mum should be around for the end of term stuff. But not in this case.
Only yesterday White House officials were framing this shirt-sleeves summit in terms of the future security of the world the 21st Century.
That sounds ridiculously grandiose, but taking the long view, they are right. Chinese talk of a building a â€œNew Type of Great Power Relationshipâ€, as Beijing has referred to this summit, is about trying to avoid what White House officials call the â€œhistoric inevitabilityâ€ of rising great powers clashing with sitting ones.
This time, in the age of a truly global economy and nuclear weapons, it must be different. The stakes are huge, which is why Mrs Obamaâ€™s responsibilities to her two girls are, Iâ€™m afraid, somewhat trumped by the interests of global peace and security.
You could argue thatâ€™s plain sexist. Why, in this day and age, should Mrs Obama provide window dressing (and yes, easy copy) for this shindig? How many spouses do you know who attend their husbandâ€™s or wifeâ€™s business meetings, largely for the purposes of adornment?
But that misses the point. This meeting is all about building personal relationships. Itâ€™s about slipping the manacles of protocol, showing hospitality and giving respect towards the Chinese guests, and treating them like theyâ€™ve never been treated before.
As I wrote here last weekend, this is a rare opportunity to lay the foundations of a new beginning, and like it or not, Mrs Obama has a vital role to play in that.
Sheâ€™s a massive global celebrity and role model, and to most Chinese this will just look like a plain snub. The implication is that China wasnâ€™t important enough for her to bother with, particularly when she does plenty of other ceremonial stuff, including a lot of Democrat Party fundraisers of late.
It is not clear if the Chinese side had expected Mrs Obama to show, but as my colleague Tom Phillips reports from Shanghai today, the Chinese public were very much looking forward to seeing the two first ladies, on an equal footing, lapping up the limelight.
This is not just about window-dressing. For once Mrs Obama has real and crucial role to play in global diplomacy. Itâ€™s about China having equivalence, about showing respect â€“ because at the absolute heart of China and America learning to get along, is that both publics should start to understand each other better.
As someone whoâ€™s lived in both countries, it always strikes me a sad that Chinese and Americans donâ€™t know each other better, because if they did theyâ€™d find lots to like about each other â€“ the work ethic, the love of family, and the worship of money and an irreverent sense of humour.
Mrs Obama â€“ or the White House â€“ has missed a truly golden opportunity.

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” While President Barack Obama is meeting with Chinaâ€™s president in California this weekend, some Chinese are disappointed that first lady Michelle Obama will not be on the trip.

The first ladyâ€™s office would only say she was staying in Washington to be with family. Monday is younger daughter Sasha Obamaâ€™s 12th birthday, and Mrs. Obama early on declared herself â€œmom in chiefâ€ and always has said her girls come first.

Friday and Saturdayâ€™s summit between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are their first since Xi was installed in March. They were meeting at Sunnylands, a sprawling desert estate with a private golf course in Rancho Mirage.

A White House official said the Chinese government asked about Mrs. Obamaâ€™s plans when the trip was scheduled several weeks ago and was told she was not able to make it. The official, speaking on a condition of anonymity without authorization to discuss trip negotiations on the record, said the Chinese never complained or raised the question again.

But a person in Beijing familiar with the preparations said that when National Security Adviser Tom Donilon visited last week to hammer out plans for the summit, both sides talked as if the two women would meet.

Publicly, Beijing is muting any hurt feelings over Mrs. Obamaâ€™s no-show at Sunnylands. Asked whether her absence was regrettable, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said, â€œRegarding the relevant arrangements on the U.S. side, we respect them.â€

But disappointment over Mrs. Obamaâ€™s absence was palpable if not vehement in some Chinese mainstream and social media. Xiâ€™s wife, Peng Liyuan, is a rare commodity in Chinese politics â€” a popular political spouse known for her style and poise who has been accompanying Xi on his diplomatic travels.

Peng holds the rank of major general in the Peopleâ€™s Liberation Army and was a popular singer on state television, best known for her stirring renditions of patriotic odes, often while wearing full dress uniform. Many Chinese were interested in seeing how she compares with the United Statesâ€™ own glamorous, high profile first lady.

Zhang Ming, an international studies expert at Renmin University in Beijing, was quoted on social media as calling Mrs. Obamaâ€™s absence from their husbandsâ€™ meeting as â€œstrange for normal diplomatic protocol.â€

â€œThe Chinese public will actually be quite unhappy, because they are quite proud of their first ladyâ€™s role in diplomacy,â€ Zhang said in a telephone interview. â€œIf Michelle doesnâ€™t go, it will make it difficult for our first lady to perform.â€

Zhang and others expressed skepticism that Mrs. Obama was skipping the trip to be with her daughters.

â€œChinese people might be â€˜extremely sensitiveâ€™ or maybe they like to pursue perfection, but when they see that the first lady has let a â€˜family trifleâ€™ influence â€˜a major state event,â€™ they will inevitably be disappointed,â€ said the pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao in a commentary on its website.

This indicates that China has lost face and it was a tight slap across the face, no matter what the Chinese poster comment try to cover up to save face.

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Yes, some western medias say that China has lost face and it was a tight slap. I reall don't think Chinese public would see this as a kind of big deal. If you check last time President Hu visited US, you will find out that his wife was not there. Honestly, I don't think it is a big deal. In Chinese tradition, in the meeting of leaders, their wives shouldn't be there.

Yes, some western medias say that China has lost face and it was a tight slap. I reall don't think Chinese public would see this as a kind of big deal. If you check last time President Hu visited US, you will find out that his wife was not there. Honestly, I don't think it is a big deal. In Chinese tradition, in the meeting of leaders, their wives shouldn't be there.

That is funny. What she should wear when she is singing a song regarding Tibetan?
And how could she pretends to be a tibetan, when her name is a Han's name?